Why Baseball Needs a Salary Cap

I am a Yankee fan.  Let me get that out of the way right from the start, though if you've followed this blog for any length of time you've picked that up already.  I don't care about competitive balance, per say, and I'm not sure the cap brings as much balance as is advertised.  The salary cap in football has not prevented the Detroit Lions from stinking for, oh let's say, the last 50 years or the Steelers from consistently fielding a contender, spare a few seasons in the 80's.  It's worked better in the NBA, but you still have the Lakers and Celtics back on top, just like 1966 and 1986.  Good organizations find a way to use the system they are forced to work in to their advantage, and no amount manipulating from above will cover up incompetence.  But what the cap does is forces stars to be spread around.  Fans follow their team, but they also follow stars.  LeBron James didn't go to Miami to be a star, he brought his star from Cleveland.  Melo has made a name in Denver.  Again, Shaq was bigger than life before going to LA.  In baseball since only a few teams can afford the top flight talent, the big names are all in New York, Boston and St. Louis, and lately Philadelphia.  Chicago should be on that list, but their pro teams have a habit of acting like they're in a small market city.   If there are more known stars left in the playoffs fans are more likely to keep watching once their teams are eliminated.

I love the story of the San Francisco Giants.  A group of cast offs who played together, with a lot of heart, and this morning they are the World Series Champs.  But who knows any of them?  Maybe people know Tim Lincecum, but Buster Posey?  Did anyone know that Edgar Renteria and Juan Uribe were still in the League? People stop watching because they don't know the players.This is why the ratings are down.

The myth in baseball right now is that the big bad Yankees buy the Pennant every year, which is bunk.  Take way the '96 to 2000 seasons, and the last thirty years has seen a wide variety of Series participants from all sorts of places and with a range of payrolls.  An All Star line up does not guarantee success.  If that were the case the Yankees would have dominated the 80's, and would have won more than the two Series' that bookended the last decade.  The Yankees would need a time of adjustment, but if their corporate management is as competent as it seems, they will adjust to the new reality of a salary cap.   Would they be as dominant? Probably not.  But they would still be in the mix more times than not.  And when the Giants, Rangers, Marlins and Tigers make it to the big show, as they inevitably do, people will still be watching because there will be a Star or two that they know and would have followed through the season and the playoffs.

Football is king, and that's just the way it is.  But baseball can make a rebound if it sets up a system that spreads the stars and the spotlight around to league more evenly.